Pope Francis named Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, as a member of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See or APSA.
APSA, which is in Italian Amministrazione del Patrimonio della Sede Apostolica, acts as the treasury and central bank of Vatican City and the Holy See.
It is the office that deals with the “provisions owned by the Holy See in order to provide the funds necessary for the Roman Curia to function.”
Pope Paul VI established APSA as part of his broader reform of the Roman Curia in the apostolic constitution “Regimini Ecclesiae universae” issued on Aug. 15, 1967.
APSA was composed originally of two sections: the “Ordinary Section” and the “Extraordinary Section.”
The “Ordinary Section” continued the work of the Administration of the Property of the Holy See, a commission that Pope Leo XIII set up in 1880, initially as an advisory body, and to which in 1891 he gave direct responsibility for administering the property remaining to the Holy See after the complete loss of the Papal States in 1870.
The “Extraordinary Section” administers the funds given by the Italian government to implement the Financial Convention attached to the Lateran Treaty of 1929.
After World War II, the International Monetary Fund recognized the Administration of the Property of the Holy See, as the central bank of Vatican City.
On July 9, 2014, the “Ordinary Section” of APSA was transferred to the Secretariat for the Economy while the “Extraordinary Section” remained within the purview of APSA.
Since then APSA focuses exclusively on its role as a Treasury for the Holy See and the Vatican City State.
Also appointed member of APSA with Cardinal Tagle is Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.